Friendship Needs no Words
by BlackberryBecka
Summary: Well I totally stink at creating a summary but i'll give it a shot.Well this is basically a story taking place from when Grace hears about and meets Jake and how their relationship grows into a strong friendship.Proberbly better than how i explained it.ha
1. Chapter 1

_Authors Note: This is my first fan fiction so be nice. Sorry if it sucks! I regret to say that I do not own anything. This is set just before Grace meets Jake, obviously and can be thought of as a deleted scene from the movie! Hope you enjoy and please rate and review, and I really do like to hear where I can improve and even where I just basically stink. Hope you enjoy!!!_

**Grace woke up that morning feeling irritable, not that that was completely out of the ordinary but today it was a little more than just waking up on the wrong side of the bed. Today was the day some new jar headed ex-marine would arrive to take the place of his identical twin brother in her Avatar Program, something she was NOT happy about, and the fact that Parker had only informed her of this fact the day before without the actual courtesy to tell this to her face did not make her feel anyway better.**

"**That idiot Parker" she thought as she rubbed her head beginning to regret those glasses of wine she had drank the previous night. She sat there for a few minutes wondering what she would do and eventually decided to grab a cup of coffee before going to complain to Parker, an event she seemed to be doing continuously ever since he had let those idiotic marines get away with destroying the school she worked so hard to set up and maintain and in the process, killing Silwanin, who happened to be the oldest daughter of Eytukan, the Omaticaya's clan leader and Mo'at the spiritual leader, preventing all chances of her or any other avatar, or dream walker, as the Navi called them, into the tribe again. This realisation REALLY pissed her off and the more she thought about this incident and the fact that an ex-marine would be taking control of an avatar with absolutely no training instead of his brother who had spent five years in training and who was a fully accomplished scientist added to her fury.**

**She marched down to Parkers office throwing anyone who got in her way one of her infamous deathly looks and angrily walking around them. When she finally got to her destination she swung the door open and saw Parker about to aim his golf ball into a turned over cup, a game she soon put an end to by kicking the cup aside, preventing him from getting the ball in. She then shoved his letter informing her of the situation at him.**

"**What the hell is this about Selfridge" she asked trying unsuccessfully to keep her voice completely calm but thinking she was doing a pretty good job at not picking up one of his golf clubs and hitting him so hard across the face with it that he would actually think he was seeing stars.**

**He glanced at the paper she was dangling in front of him and gave her one of his terribly annoying smirks before answering "I don't know what your talking about".**

"**Oh don't play dumb with me you fool, you know exactly why I'm here. Now tell me number 1. exactly why you have invited Tom's inexperienced brother to come to control his avatar and number 2. Why you only inform me of this fact the day before said persons arrival. I am not sure if you are aware of this but I don't actually need more jar headed morons roaming around my science labs bugging me every two seconds when I do have important work to be doing."**

**Parker looked up at her in amusement and answered, "well", he sighed. "I think you should be thankful that this guy had a twin brother of the same DNA so his puppet won't be put to waste and thankful his twin agreed to come!"**

"**Thankful?" Grace shouted amazed. "Your telling me I should be thankful that Tom died after years of being thought about the Navi and Pandora only to be replaced by his clueless and inexperienced brother?" "And I think you will find that the common term for my **_**puppets**___**as **_**you **_**call them is **_**Avatars**_**!'**

"**Oh, well **_**excuse**_** me! I had no idea" he said sarcastically. "And yes, you should be thankful for this, now run along and start this **_**important work**_** you speak of and do tell if you find anything of actual interest such as finding a diplomatic solution by using anything you've got to attempt to stop any outbreak of war"**

**Grace rolled her eyes and sighed. There was just no getting through to this man, so she decided to retreat to her science lab to calm down a little before meeting the ex-marine, but not before she made a quick stop to have a cigarette!**


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N:I don't own anything and excuse some of the movie quotes I added in! I had to so it would be brought together more clearly. Also, sorry if some of my facts are wrong. Please R&R especially if you have requests of what you might like to see more of in later chapters!_

Grace had been in the Science lab for over two hours now analyzing plant samples and taking down the information she had collected when she saw her associate Max Patal walk in with two other guys at his heals, one in a wheelchair.

"Hey Grace" he greeted. "As you probably know already, a new shipment of workers have just arrived today so I took the liberty of showing them around the labs and their link chambers on behalf of you" he stammered. "Oh, this is Norman Spellman and Jake Sully" he said pointing them out.

"Hey, Thank you for showing them around, that will really help keep me sane" she said relieved that she didn't have to do it and feeling a lot less stressed. "Well hello" she said hurriedly, "I am Augustine and I will be somewhat of your `mentor until you two get more accustomed to life on Pandora and may I quickly remind you that this planet is rather dangerous and if you are stupid enough not to respect this I'm afraid you most defiantly will not last very long". "Do I make myself clear?"

"Yup Madame" they both nodded with Norm looking slightly scared after her speech as he started to worry about whether he was completely prepared for this and if he should have studied the known dangerous plant life a little better.

"Excellent" she exclaimed. "Now, Do you think you could take Norman to his link chamber and give him a quick briefing on controlling his avatar while I run through a few things with Jake before he follows too" she asked directing her question to Max.

"Yeah, not a problem" he said quickly, gesturing for Norm to follow him to the elevator.

Grace stared at Jake for a few minutes until Norm and Max left looking more irritable by the second until Jake finally broke the silence.

"So, well I'm Jake" he said stating the already obvious. "I'm here to replace my twin broth…."

" Yeah yeah" she said cutting him off. "I know who you are and I don't need you. I need your brother! You know the one with the PHD who trained for three years to work for this mission?"

"Yeah well guess what, he's dead which I know is a big inconvenience to you but…

"But what? You figured you'd just come here to the most hostile environment and see how it went? God…what the hell was going through your mind when you made that decision? "

"Maybe I was getting sick of doctors telling me what I should and shouldn't do" Jake added seriously, putting an end to their argument leaving her speechless for the first time before walking, or in his case wheeling away to catch up with Norm and Max.

Grace watched him leave, allowing a slight smile to creep up her face at the determination and obvious will power he just showed at that moment leaving her with just a little more respect for him even with his lack of scientific or basically any knowledge at all.

_Hmm,_ she thought. _Maybe there's hope for him yet!_

* * *

Twenty minutes later Max came back down to inform her that he had explained to Jake and Norm about their link chambers , what to expect and how to control their avatars and also gone the extra step by showing them their avatars and answering any questions that they had. Grace thanked him and made her way up to the area of Hell's Gate where the link chambers were situated while thinking what she would have done and how many cigarettes she would have to smoke to attempt to remain calm had Max not taken over for awhile. When she arrived at the room she saw Miles Quaritch, the last and least person the expected or wanted for that matter to see here. She walked over to him hearing him say "so we've got a deal" before leaving. As he passed they glared at each other for what seemed like a lifetime before he left. She was curious to know what they were talking about and why Jake looked so pleased with himself but decided to leave it for a more suited time.

She rounded up Norm and showed him to his link chamber and attempted to help Jake into his before he stopped her and determinately shifted himself onto it. This surprised her at the same time as pleasing her as it did show he was actually taking the whole thing somewhat more seriously then she had expected and couldn't help herself from smiling once again at his determination, something that reminded her a lot of herself thirty years ago when she found herself training and training to become an xenobotanist in the hopes of travelling to Pandora one day and studying all the new types of wildlife yet to be discovered there.

_Ha. Now look at me, she said quietly thinking of how all her hard work payed off leaving her in charge of the whole the Avatar Program and writing her own book on the Plant life of Pandora._

"_Yo Doc" she heard bringing her mind back from memory lane. "Whatcha smiling at?" Jake asked officially awakening her._

"_Nothing, just thinking about something" she muttered. "Now lets get the two of you sorted quickly and into your avatars" she said._

_Jake and Norm looked at each other excitedly before she the lids of their link chambers were shut._

"_Just relax and let your mind go blank, shouldn't be too difficult for you" she added directing her last comment at Jake as a joke._

_He smiled and found himself drifting of to an unconscious state before opening his eyes five minutes later in a different place and experiencing life for the first time through his avatar._


End file.
